Claire Ouyang landed in a spot where there weren’t many people. Evan Chu glanced around and was surprised to find hundreds of people playing by the lakeshore—it was pretty fascinating.
"Claire, why do all these people like coming here? Is it just to catch a glimpse of that palace in the sky? That’s way too unrealistic!" Evan Chu grumbled, feeling speechless.
"What’s the big deal? If it’s rainy or overcast, even more people show up. Mist-Cloud Lake is super mysterious—when it rains, the water level rises, and when the tide goes out, all sorts of strange things wash up on the shore. Sometimes you can even pick up top-grade Starstones." Claire laughed.
Evan Chu fell silent for a moment. He hadn’t expected anything this weird. Looking up, he noticed you couldn’t see very far across the lake—the surface was still shrouded in thick mist even under the blazing sun. No wonder they called it Mist-Cloud Lake.
Evan Chu grabbed Claire’s hand and led her down to the lakeshore. The water was crystal clear, but you couldn’t see the bottom. A gentle breeze stirred up ripples, and the sunlight reflected off the surface like countless fish scales—it looked stunning.
"Hey, are there any monsters in Mist-Cloud Lake? Like water beasts or something? This is the Sea Regions, so it wouldn’t be weird if something like that showed up," Evan asked, half-joking.
"Mist-Cloud Lake is actually huge. I’ve gone swimming here before, but I’ve never seen any of those water monsters you’re talking about, and I’ve never heard of anyone getting hurt by anything in the lake. Seriously, you don’t need to worry at all," Claire replied with a smile.
Just as Claire finished speaking, a sudden commotion broke out about a li away. Instantly, crowds of people rushed toward the source of the screams.
Evan and Claire followed the crowd. Most of them were Merfolk, then Crabfolk, and of course, plenty of humans mixed in too.
The screams came from a young Merfolk girl. Evan saw her being tossed around above the water, wrapped up in a massive tentacle.
A lake monster? That was Evan Chu’s first thought. Didn’t Claire say there weren’t any monsters in this lake? Why did one suddenly show up—was she lying, or did she just never notice before?
Everyone stared in shock. A few people even flew out over the lake and attacked the tentacle rising from the water. Their strikes were powerful, but they didn’t do a thing.
Evan and Claire kept their distance—not because he didn’t want to help, but because there was nothing he could do. Some of the people here were even at the Divine Martial Realm, and if they weren’t making a move, what could he do as someone who’d just broken through to Heaven Martial?
"Lin Feng, I can’t believe there really is a monster in this lake! But it’s not a sea beast—it doesn’t have any of the usual traits. If it were a sea beast, it would’ve dragged that girl underwater already instead of playing around like this," Claire said seriously.
Just then, a young guy wielding a giant flaming saber flew right up to the tentacle and hacked at it with all his strength. Fire-element power and blade-qi blasted out, slicing a huge gash into the monster’s tentacle.
But to everyone’s shock, what flowed out of the wound wasn’t red blood—it was green liquid. As soon as it hit the lake, it started smoking, obviously super corrosive.
Maybe the monster got pissed because its tentacle was hurt. It suddenly flung the girl away, and then the lake surface started churning—like boiling water, bubbling up everywhere.
Countless bubbles burst up from the lake, and then the water started surging toward the shore, almost like a rising tide. The whole thing looked seriously creepy.
A deafening boom erupted from the depths of the lake. Instantly, Claire grabbed Evan and shot into the sky, keeping a close watch from far above. She reacted so fast that even Evan felt a little ashamed.
He couldn’t believe he was relying on a woman to protect him. Just thinking about it made him feel embarrassed. He secretly swore this would be the last time—no matter how dangerous things got, he’d stand in front of the women from now on.
Even though he felt kind of awkward about it, Evan knew Claire was just worried about him. Watching the commotion on the lake, he realized that thing was about to surface.
After about a minute, a monster appeared that sent terror through the whole crowd. The main reason? Its sheer size.
If Goldwing and the Skyfiend Tiger were the biggest beasts Evan had ever seen, this lake monster was at least ten times larger than both of them put together.
Its whole body covered over a hundred meters of lake surface. Most terrifying of all, it had tens of thousands of tentacles, and three of them slowly lifted its massive body out of the water.
Each of those three tentacles was at least ten meters thick. Just imagining it was enough to make your skin crawl.
When the monster finally surfaced completely, it towered several hundred meters high. Evan and Claire retreated another few kilometers before finally stopping.
Everyone else was backing away just as fast. Even from thousands of meters away, it was still dangerous—a fleeing cultivator who’d gotten nearly a kilometer away was snatched right back by one of those tentacles.
That meant this monster had tentacles at least a kilometer long—a true behemoth. People weren’t just watching from a distance anymore, they were running for their lives.
Claire soared even higher and glanced at the monster, then said to Evan, "Even a ninth-layer Divine Martial expert probably couldn’t beat something like that. Today’s definitely an eye-opener!"
"That thing’s probably tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of years old. Its strength must be at the Saint Martial Realm by now. I say we head back—if it pulls out some weird attack, we won’t be able to outrun it," Evan said, sounding worried.
When you’re up against a truly powerful monster, survival is what matters most. Playing the hero is just plain stupid—Evan had way too much left to do, and there was no way he was dying here.
A lot of people had already left, but plenty were still hovering in the air, quietly watching the beast. Sensing Evan’s worry, Claire retreated another thousand meters just to be safe.
"Lin Feng, we should be safe here. Let’s just watch for now—I bet with all this chaos, some real experts will show up. My dad might even come," Claire said.
Just as Evan was about to speak, the Sword Spirit’s voice echoed in his mind: "This is so strange. I can’t believe it actually appeared here. Was the seal broken? That shouldn’t be possible!"
The Sword Spirit’s cryptic words left Evan totally confused. Clearly, she recognized the monster, so he immediately asked, "Luna, what is that thing? How can it be so huge?"
"That’s not just a monster—it’s a true upper-ancient Saint-grade beast, the Glazewater Kraken. In my memories, it was sealed away. Why is it suddenly in this world? It’s really bizarre," Luna replied.
Right then, a blinding golden light flashed across the sky, so bright you couldn’t keep your eyes open. Evan squinted up and saw, through the clouds, a magnificent golden-jade palace faintly appearing on the horizon…